The Mummy – Review

Disjointed as a severed arm, TheMummy has a tangled knot of a plot. Its story is as confused as its grasp of mythology and geography, yet still it survives. The key to this life among certain death is, simply, fun.

TheMummy comes alive when it is aiming for enjoyment over excellence or just going for the jugular, be that in the action beats, comic dashes, even fear, gore and horror. Zipping around Iraq, London and, oddly, Surrey, TheMummy moves from stunts to set-pieces each enjoyable for their own reasons. The connecting tissue, however, is paper thin.

Taking twisted inspiration from hieroglyphics, director Kurtzman frequently resorts to telling instead of showing, needing exposition to mind the gaps. There’s an awful lot of world-building for the Dark Universe which is utterly unnecessary, and even within the confines of TheMummy‘s own story there is too much superfluous bumf which only complicates without purpose.

TheMummy is, essentially, Mission: Impossible – Zombie Mode (down to featuring an epic plane scene and making use of Ethan Hunt’s breath-holding abilities). Here we have a different Tom Cruise to usual; not worse, just different. He’s less serious, more rogue, still magnetic and energetic. Backed up superbly by the ever-watchable (new franchise favourite) Jake Johnson and Russell Crowe really relishing his dual role, TheMummy does have an issue with women – both Sofia Boutella and Annabelle Wallis are given too little to work with and are deeply underserved when they should be the heart.

The Dark Universe may have bitten off more than it can chew at its first sitting, making TheMummy too much of a parent to the infant franchise. However, this opening film is certainly fun enough to make the prospect of TheMummy‘s return or other stories a welcome one.

About The Author

Moonlighting as a reviewer and editor, I’m more at home with recent films than golden oldies and enjoy appreciating the technical achievements as much as the escapism of the movies. Happy to try any film once, if only for fifteen minutes.

I also volunteer with MediCinema – a charity which every film fan should look into if they don’t already know about.